Cork-based aesthetic surgeons calling for change in industry legislation

A CORK-BASED co-founder of a chain of aesthetic medicine clinics has said they are rectifying four cases a week of treatment undertaken by unqualified providers.

Dr James Cotter, along with his brother, Dr Brian Cotter, and tech entrepreneur, Pat Phelan, set up SISU Clinics in 2018 and now have 16 clinics in the Republic of Ireland and 10 in the US and the UK.

The Cotter brothers were general surgeons and, appalled by clinicians putting profits before patients by offering treatments from unqualified providers, they set up SISU.

“We see, across the Republic of Ireland, at a rate of about, on average, four patients a week who had treatments done in other clinics by unqualified providers coming into us with issues,” said Dr James Cotter.

Regulated

Dr Cotter acknowledged that the industry wasn’t ‘very well regulated’.

“It’s regulated to the extent that to prescribe and administer botox in the Republic of Ireland, one has to be a medical doctor or dentist.

“There is no regulation around dermal fillers. There are no medical qualifications required to administer a dermal filler because a dermal filler is classified not as a drug but as a medical device, and one would think that ‘medical’ is the operative word, but it’s not.

“If you wanted, you could order dermal filler over the internet and you could decide you were going to administer dermal fillers tomorrow and advertise it.”

While smuggled botox might or might not be what it says on the label, the administration of dermal filler by unqualified people could have serious consequences for patients, Dr Cotter said.

Risk

He pointed to the risk of dermal filler, incorrectly injected into the face, which is hyaluronic acid gel and could lead to necrosis, which can cause body parts, such as lips, to fall off, or even blindness.

Dr Cotter said that he and his brother wrote to the health minister before the pandemic to suggest a change in the legislation, as well as more support for the Health Products Regulatory Association, which polices the legal-drugs industry in Ireland.

“We wrote to the minister for health in early 2020 and then covid happened and everybody’s priorities changed and the world changed,” Dr Cotter said.

“We asked for the legislation around dermal fillers to be looked at, because you could give all the resources that you wanted to the HPRA, but if it’s still legal or, rather, not illegal, for an unqualified person to inject dermal fillers, then the problem will persist and propagate as these treatments become even more ubiquitous.”